User blog:ScarlettofHydraIsland/Book 2 (Black as Night and Red as Blood): Crystal Fire
Chapter 20. Chapter 20: Ebony looked up, fear flashing in her yellow eyes, at Midnight towering over her. The black vixen tried to move, only to find her footpaws were paralyzed. “Did you think you could betray me and get away with it?” Ebony held a paw out to shield her face only to find it wrenched down as Midnight’s Ruby began to glow. “Enjoy a painful death, fool.” The vixen walked away as her shadow beast swung its pointed tail down towards her terrified face. “No!” Ebony gasped awake, sitting bolt upright on her bed of straw. Her nightmares of Midnight coming back to kill her had gotten worse as the weeks passed uneventfully in her cell. The black vixen stared absently into a dark corner where the weak torch light didn’t reach. As she watched, a red light began to appear, beginning to grow stronger and brighter before her shocked eyes. Gradually, it began to take a form, the wavering light flickering around a tall vixen. Suddenly the glow sloughed away, revealing white fur and a violet dress. Ebony looked up at the leader of the Blutrubin, the renowned and feared Amethyst. The white vixen smirked at her shocked subordinate. “Miss me?” “Milady.” Ebony bowed her head before the leader. Amethyst’s good eye glared down at the traitorous vixen. “You killed your companion and fellow member of the Blutrubin. You allowed the woodlanders to take you captive. But most unforgivably, you destroyed your own Ruby because you were afraid.” Ebony took in a shuddering breath. “Milady, I am sorry. Please have mercy on me.” Amethyst’s scarred face twisted in disgust. “There’s no mercy in the Blutrubin. Mercy is a weakness, much like love, fear; useless emotions. You also were a traitor. And we have no room for traitors in our ranks.” The black vixen looked into the cold, single violet eye, the other one blank, the fur around it a mess of spiderwebbed scars. “Please, Milady. I had no choice.” Amethyst tilted her head, black headfur falling around her exposed white shoulders. “Somehow....”, she slunk forward, one paw reaching out to tip Ebony’s head towards her. “I suspect you are lying.” Her claws sunk into the other vixen’s chin. “You are, aren’t you?” The black vixen gave a sob of terror, fear gripping her in its’ icy claws. “Garnet went completely insane. I....I....I had to kill her.” Amethyst laughed, a sound like breaking ice. “Oh no, I don’t mean that. I mean you destroyed your own Ruby and allied yourself with the woodlanders.” Ebony stared at her, shaking with fear. “I......I.... had too, they would have killed me!” The white vixen’s Ruby began to glow, sending tendrils of light towards Ebony as she chuckled. “Better to be dead then a traitor.” A strangled scream escaped Ebony as the spell began to take its hold, slashing deep cuts into her skin as it pulled her to her paws. The black vixen was hauled up and up, until her robe caught on a hook in the wall. Amethyst stepped back, watching as the light acted like a knife, slashing through skin and muscle. The white vixen smirked, enjoying the traitor’s agony, before she realized Ebony’s tortured cries might attract unwanted attention. A quick silencing spell took care of that and Amethyst watched the black vixen’s face contorting with silent pain as steams of blood ran through her fur. Finally Ebony gasped her last breath, head dropping to the blood soaked robe clinging to her tall frame. The white vixen quietly transported herself to the deserted, silent courtyard where she glared up at the remains of Midnight’s palace. “Soon woodlanders. Very soon you will feel the full power of the Blutrubin. Midnight was nothing compared to what is coming to you.” With this dire threat, Amethyst disappeared as silently as she had come, leaving two bloody bootprints on the stones. Early the next morning, Violet woke with a cry of horror, struggling free of what had been Midnight’s silken sheets. Willow came racing into the room, still in her light blue nightdress, long hair in a rumpled mess. “What’s wrong?! What happened?!” The haremaid hugged her arms, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. “Death and fire. More than we have ever known. Another villain rising, one far worse than Midnight ever was.” Willow snorted, jerking a paw through the tangles in her chestnut brown headfur. “Sounds like a load of balderdash if you ask me. The Blutrubin is gone from here.” Violet shook her head, fear gleaming in her blind eyes. “A villain beyond the mere capacities of evil. One who’s heart is darker than anything I have ever seen. No, Willow, this is real. The Blutrubin still exists out there and whoever this beast is, they are plainly very close to the spiritual realm. The dark one; the dark one woodlanders never talk of.” The squirrelmaid turned back; the true terror in Violet’s voice making her shudder. “Well, maybe they will not come here.” She walked over and threw open the windows. “See, it’s a lovely day out there and......” Whatever the squirrelmaid had been about to say caught in her throat. “Violet.” Willow’s voice was a quivering whisper. The blind haremaid climbed out of the bed and padded towards the shivering squirrelmaid. “What is it?” The squirrelmaid reached out a shaking paw to point. “There’s a pair of bloody bootprints out there, but there are no pawprints leading to and from the prints.” Willow turned to Violet who looked as scared she felt. “The Blutrubin used to transport themselves in that way. Somebeast was here last night and I have no doubt that they were not friendly.” The haremaid shook herself, visibly pushing away apprehension. “Right. You go check on the prisoner to make sure she has not escaped and I will contact Scarlett and the others.” Willow nodded and took off down the stairs. The two former slaves had cleared most of the rubble from the throne room and other places as they planned to live there for a time. The island was oddly silent, as they were the only ones who stayed behind to look after their prisoner. Most of Midnight’s former corsairs were long gone, many leaving to join to the Hydra Island corsairs. Others had taken to the high seas once more, able to travel freely. The other slaves had gone on the ships to Hydra Island, while Goldenflame had gone back to the Clan’s. The squirrelmaid paused outside the heavy doors leading to the dungeons and torture chambers. Finally, she got up enough strength to push open the creaking bolt and go down the dripping stairs. As Willow descended into the bowels of the palace, it grew eerily silent, the only noise being water dripping somewhere in the distance. The squirrelmaid was aware of the evil that had been done here and she wondered, with a shudder, if the spirits of the beasts tortured to death still lingered about the filthy tunnels. Willow averted her blue eyes as she passed the torture chambers that had once rang with screams, but now had the same almost menacing silence as the rest of the area. She had been in there once and had seen and felt some of the fearsome collection of objects designed to do horrible things to a beasts’ body, stained with dried blood and lying in neat rows. Almost unconsciously, she raised her paw to trace the scar along her jaw, where a metal spike had left its mark. The squirrelmaid stiffened when she remembered the torturers, two burly wearats, hardened by decades of horrendous deeds. Willow hoped against hopes that they weren’t still in there, brooding and waiting instructions that would never come. She flashed a look into the darkness, but could make out nothing. The dripping sound was far closer as she rounded the corner where the cell doors stood like gaping teeth along the walls. “Ebony?” Her voice sounded small amid the darkness. Not for the first time, Willow wished the dungeons were better lit. Although, she reasoned, perhaps it was better that she could not see whatever horrors lurked down here. “Ebony?” She called again. No response. “There’s no use sulking. I need to see if you’re there.” She held up the plate of food. “I brought food.” Still no response. Only the sound of water dripping, closer then ever. The squirrelmaid sighed with irritation as she fumbled with the ring of keys around her belt. Finally making out the right key in the dim light, she pulled the heavy door open, holding a torch to illuminate the cell. The floor was unmarked at first, and then Willow saw the huge pool of blood marring the grey stones. She tried to calm her breathing, as the squirrelmaid knew no beast could lose that much blood and still be alive. The dripping sound was coming from the far edge of the puddle. Willow raised the torch, its’ light wavering as her paw shook. There was Ebony, hanging from a hook on the hall, glimmering redness shining all over her. The vixen’s face was contorted in a silent scream, agony still marked in her dulled eyes. Whatever had happened to her had not been a quick death. Blood was still oozing from the edge of her robe, creating the dripping sound Willow thought had been water. A scream of pure horror tore itself from the squirrelmaid’s throat, booming around the tunnels like an explosion. It reached the empty recesses of halls above the dungeons, where similar screams had once echoed regularly as Midnight sent slave after slave to the chambers to be interrogated about Star’s escape. The cry reached Violet’s ears as a thin, faraway wail. The haremaid sat bolt upright, fear making her heart clench. Had whatever that thing had been caught Willow? She raced towards the dungeons as at the same time, Willow bolted down the dark halls away from that cell. Terror filled the squirrelmaid’s mind, distorting the shadows thrown by her torch into hideous beasts. Violet pulled the heavy bolts open just as Willow crashed into the doors. She bounded to her feet and without bothering to pull Violet to her paws, slammed the massive doors shut. The haremaid got to her own paws and grasped Willow’s shaking, sweaty one. “What happened? Are you alright?” Willow was too badly shaken to answer and Violet led her away to the outside steps. Before they reached it, the squirrelmaid caught her breath in one desperate gasp. “Whatever that thing was that left pawprints in the courtyard.....It killed Ebony.” The blind haremaid shook her head. “That is not all that happened. Her death would not have upset you this badly.” Willow covered her eyes with a shaking paw. “It wasn’t the fact she was killed, it was how she was killed that was horrible.” Her voice faltered. “Also, you know I have some bad memories of the dungeons. But seasons, Violet. She looked like she had bled to death from a thousand cuts.” The squirrelmaid looked up, eyes wet. “That villain you mentioned. You were right. Not even Midnight was that depraved. We need to get out of here.” Alright chapter 20 is......dark. Very dark and fairly bloody. Poor Ebony, she was evil but she didn’t deserve what she got. Amethyst is way worse than anything my motley collection of heroes have faced. Well, here’s the second book of Black as Night and Red as Blood. I figured I might as well do a second book, seeing as I have a new (and even worse) villain and a lot of plot twists I need to finish. Category:Blog posts